The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-11-24
PATAGONIA.

There used to be place called Pat
agonia. 1t appears on our geogra-
phies now as "a drear and uninhabit-
able waste, upon which herds of wild
horses and cattle Craze, that are
hunted for their flesh by few bands
Of savage Indians of immense stature" +"
| am quoting from a school book pub
Gshed in 1886, and in common use in
this country. The same geography
gives similar information about ssthe
Argentine Confederation" 1t makes
the Argentines roar with rage to call
their country ''the Argentine Confed-
Grafton" 1t would be just as polite
and proper to call this the ''Confeder-
ate States of America" A bitter,
bloody war was fought to wipe that
name off the map. but our publishers
still insist upon keeping it there 1t
is not confederation; it is Nation,
with a big IN, like ours-one and
inseparable, united we stand, divided
we fall, and all that sort of thing-the
Argentine Republic. To call it any
thing else is an insult to the patriots
who fought to make it so, and a refiec-
ton upon our own intelligence.
Several years ago Patagonia was di-
vided between Chill and the Arren-
tine Republic, the Ministers from the
United States to those two countries
doing the carving. The SUBMITS of
the Cordilleras were fixed as the bound
airy lines. Chilli took the strait of
Magellan and the strip along the Pa
cific coast between the mountains and
the sea, and the Argentine Republic
the pampas, the archipelago of Terra
del Fuego being divided between them.
Since the partition ranchmen have
been pushing southwark with great
rapidity, and now the vast territory is
practically occupied. There are no
more wild cattle or horses there than
in Kansas, and the dreary, uninhab-
tied wastes of Patagonia have gone
into oblivion with the Great Ameri-
can Desert" The remnant of vast
tribe of aborigines still occupies the
interior, but the Indian problem of the
Argentine Republic was solved in a
summary way. There was consider
able annoyance on the frontier from
bands of rowing sayages, who used to
come north in the winter time, steal
cattle, rob and ravish, and the out
posts of civilization were not safe.
General Roca, the Sheridan of the
River Plate, was sent with a brigade
of CT airy to the frontier to prevent
this ~ort of thing. East and west
across the territory runs the Rio
Negro, swift, turbid stream like the
Missouri, with high banks. Fifty
miles or so from the mountains the
river makes a turn in its course, and
leaves a narrow pathway through
which everything that enters or leaves
Patagonia by land must 90. Across
this pass of twenty miles General Roca
dug ditch twelve feet deep and fif-
teen feet wide. The Indians to the
number of several thousand, were
north when the work was done, raid
ing the settlements. As spring came
they turned to go southwark as usual,
in long caravan, with their stolen
horses and cattle. ROca galloped
around their rear, and drove them
night and day before him. When thev
reached the ditch they became bewii-
dered, for they could not cross it, and
after few days of slaughter the rem
nant that survived surrendered, and
were distributed through the army as
soldiers, while the women were sent
into a semi-slavery among the ranch
men they had robbed.
The few that remain seldom come
northward, but remain around Punta
Arenas, the only settlement in the
Strait, hunting the ostrich and other
wild game, trading the skins for whis-
ky, and making themselves as
wretched as possible. The robes they
wear are made of the skins of the gu-
anaco, species of the llama, and the
breasts of young ostriches. There is
nothing prettier than an ostrich robe,
but each one represents the slaughter
of from sixteen to twenty young birds,
and they are getting rare and expen-
sive as the birds are being extermin-
ated, as our buffaloes have been.- Va
lam Z. CARTS, in Harper's Magazjne.